Yuen Woo-ping

Quick Facts

Date of Birth8/24/1945

Country of OriginHong Kong

OccupationFight choreographer

Biography

Yuen Woo-ping is a Hong Kong director and action choreographer. He was born in Canton (Guangzhou), China; some sources give 24 August 1945, others 1 January 1945. His father, Yuen Siu-tien, was a Hong Kong actor in martial arts action films.

He studied for a year at the China Drama Academy under master Yu Jim-yuen. At 20 he began working as an extra and lion dancer, and at 25 he got his first job as an action director on the film Crazy Killer under Wu Siyuan.

He made his directorial debut in 1978 with Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, starring Jackie Chan. That same year he made Drunken Master, which launched Chan's star career. He also directed, among others, Magnificent Butcher (1979), Dreadnaught (1981), Iron Monkey (1993) with Donnie Yen, Tai Chi Master (1993) with Jet Li, Wing Chun (1994) with Michelle Yeoh, True Legend (2010) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2015). Donnie Yen was his student in martial arts.

The choreography of Fist of Legend (1994) with Jet Li caught the attention of the Wachowski siblings, and in 1999 he choreographed the fight scenes of The Matrix. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) followed, along with both parts of Kill Bill (2003–2004), Kung Fu Hustle (2004), Fearless (2006) and The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), the first film to pair Jackie Chan and Jet Li. For Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon he received the Golden Horse Award in 2000; he received the Hong Kong Film Academy award for action choreography for that film (2001), Kung Fu Hustle (2005), Fearless (2007), The Grandmaster (2014) and Ip Man 4 (2020). In 2016 he received the Asian Film Awards Lifetime Achievement Award and has a star on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong.

Associated Martial Arts

Filmography

A screen role does not mean the person actually practises the art — that is listed above.